There's an old saying: Reapin' ain't easy. Maybe that's not how it goes. But even though the Soul Eater cast at Death Weapon Meister Academy haven't spent any time hacking down random Kishin in quite a few episodes, the sentiment still rings true! As the final set of Soul Eater gets going, the end of the world looms. With Asura's madness encroaching on the rest of humanity, threatening to bring about a world where sanity is persona non grata, it's time for some final character arcs! Wait, what?

Yes, rather than devoting the entire final set of episodes to one big throw down, Soul Eater takes its time and focuses on wrapping up each of the leads' individual stories. The first episode on the set centers around Medusa striking a deal with Death to gain immunity from the DWMA in exchange for something especially valuable to them, ensuring that she could sit back and watch the climactic battle between the reapers and Arachnophobia unscathed. Sometimes major villains are struck with crippling passivity/a deficiency of desire for death like that. Stein finally loses his mind after foreshadowing for most of the series, and after severing ties with the DWMA. Crona and Marie, Stein's current Death Scythe partner, set off to settle things with Medusa themselves and bring Stein back sane. Our little gender-ambiguous midseries hero's finally grown the spine to stand up to his mother's manipulative machinations and abusive history. They grow up so fast. Sort of.

The remaining eleven episodes center on the events of a single crazy climactic day, which completely one-ups the previous set's Lost Island arc. Facing a choice between fighting in the do-or-die final war against Arachnophobia or joining Crona, Maka has a difficult choice to make. Death the Kid pursues Eibon's final Magic Tool, while continuing to question his trust in his father after days spent investigating Joe Buttataki's project hidden within the school. Black*Star faces his series-long rival, Mifune, and has to determine whether his path is that of the warrior or the self-destructive demon. All this culminates in one of the craziest and most unexpected — even if conceptually trite — giant robot battles at a series climax in recent years, and a clash between gods.

You'd think that, this being an anime series that we're discussing here, all that would be more than enough. "Enough," however, is not a term that describes the approach to Soul Eater's writing. Following all of the aforementioned, everything comes down to a final head-on battle between the series' leads — Maka and Soul, Black*Star and Tsubaki, and Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters — and the mad Asura himself, who takes on a more recognizably human form for the final battles. Maka and Soul have one last particular internal conflict to face themselves while the lot of them unleash their strongest attacks in the entirety of the show, and the ending itself, while predictably feel-good and cheesy in its final twists, actually works. As the final credits roll, you get a bit of an epilogue that reminds that while the TV series is over, the story isn't (the original manga is still ongoing in Japan).

This final Soul Eater set is by far the least humorous and the most violent. Excalibur makes an appearance, but doesn't provide much in the way of comic relief this time around, and most of the supporting cast is pushed to the sidelines and receives minimal screen time — just the occasional, "Oh, hey, they're still around." Still, the writing is largely the most focused out of all the sets this time around, our heroes having the most at stake in this huge final conflict. Not all the loose ends are tied up, and as mentioned before, between the giant robot and concluding sequence of the final battle, some huge clichés are drawn upon. They're not exactly any fresher in Soul Eater, but they work well, for that they're as in-your-face and unapologetically over the top as they could have been written. For all that's here, the Soul Eater saga draws to a close on a positive note.

These episodes feature the last new ending song in the series, Abingdon Boys School's "Strength." The song plays out over images of the show's main cast, both the good guys and bad guys, defeated, and animated flashes of a final battle with Asura, all toned in crimson. It's a fairly catchy rock piece that suits the ending perfectly, complementing the melodramatic second opening with a similarly melodramatic ending that fits the intensity of these final story arcs. Most shounen action series are embarrassing to watch in their overbearing melodrama, but in a way not unlike One Piece, Soul Eater manages to make its melodrama palatable through a more interesting cast and far from serious visual tone.

This is it: the end of the road. It's hard to say if we'll ever see another TV series that continues the Soul Eater story. I've read that the events of these final story arcs differ quite a bit between the anime and manga, so even more changes would undoubtedly have to be made to make an additional adaptation work and remain consistent with the established events in this TV series. I have a feeling that this is probably all we'll get, though. For all that it is, Soul Eater's a lot of fun. It balances cliché shounen darkness and melodrama with a fresh, appealing cast of characters, and enough of a sense of humor to hopefully keep the viewer from taking it too seriously. There's points where the show's pacing feels off and inconsistent, and there's some stumbling as you get to know the characters, but the action never disappoints. If you're looking for a quality shounen action show, I can wholeheartedly recommend Soul Eater as a sure bet.